I think treading water is an appropriate description of the situation in Buffalo right now. From my last visit a couple years ago, the overall vibe I got was that on the surface the city has strong and often enviable bones in historical architecture. However, going deeper into the urban fabric and you can tell the city can often feel like an empty shell. There's a couple of decent areas like Allentown and Elmwood Village and pockets of lively restaurants/breweries scattered around, but the vast majority of the city felt dead.
You can literally stroll down Main Street Buffalo (where Shea's Theatre is) on a weekend, and be among the pedestrians you can count on one hand walking around. Same goes for the Metro Rail, I remember being among maybe a dozen or so commuters on the whole train on a weekend taking it to go downtown. Even though they have multiple colleges and universities in the city, it felt incredibly un-college-town like. There's no prominent industry to attract skilled workers in large numbers. Everything that's interesting felt really niche and grassroots, but without traction. I personally like Buffalo as an urban specimen, but right now with how things are going, I'd say an area in Toronto like Lawrence West & Weston Road may have just as much or more developments recently completed or in the pipeline.
www.thespec.com
